You can monitor my trip at the link: Little Star's Progress Live
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| Calm waters after the storm |
Today was a sit out the
rain in our private little harbor day.
We both slept really well as the rain fell on the cabin top. As usual, I was up before 6:00 while Janine
got to sleep in until around 7:00. I
fixed sausage gravy and toast for our first meal. I never tire of that fine fare.
Since we were going to
stay put for the day, I decided to tackle an annoying little problem with our
water system. We installed a new water
pump before we left Annapolis and ever since it has drawn air into the
system. The pump shuts off when the
pressure in the system reaches a certain point, but with air in the system, it
either takes a long time to build up the needed pressure and shuts off or it
gets so much air in the system that it never shuts off until you bleed the
lines. Bleeding the lines uses up our
precious water supply. I was
convinced
that the problem was on the intake side of the pump because no water was
escaping under pressure. We had
tightened the hose clamps and checked the lines and found them all as they
should be. This morning I removed the
fitting that attaches the intake hose to the pump and found that it was cross
threaded where it attached to the hose.
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| The big boat sheds that line our slough |
I walked in the rain to
a local hardware store only to find that they didn’t have the fitting that I
needed. Unwilling to give up, we pieced
together several different fittings to finally end up with what we needed.
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| The Great Bridge Bridge |
Back at the boat, I
installed the parts and we now have a fully functioning water system.
Since we had such a
large amount of rain over last night and today, the water in the waterway has
risen. The dinghy which was attached to
the back of the boat had floated under the dock behind where we were moored and
the rising waters had pinned her so tightly that I had to let most all the air
out of her to release her. Also, the
water had risen in the boat sheds so that it was up over the walkway in a
couple of places. In order to get to the
front of the marina, we had to wade through 2 or 3 inches of water.
The young team members
of the Great Bridge Crew by on their way to their boat shed and
practice. I wanted to get some pictures
of them rowing on the waterway but by the time I got there, they were loading
their boats on their trailer in
preparation for a meet to which they were heading
tomorrow. I spent time talking with their coach who is a high
school Spanish teacher. He had been
involved in crew in his younger years and set out to establish this program in
his local high school. He and 3 other
coaches work this fine group of young folks for the most part on a voluntary
basis. I was really impressed.
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| The Great Bridge Crew |
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| The tug boat American Eagle motoring up the ICW |
Back at the boat, we
grilled some marinated chicken thighs and warmed some Bob Evans mac and cheese
for our evening meal. After dinner we
both headed for the marina showers.
On our way back to the
boat we met and talked with a guy who is sailing on a big catamaran. He has been cruising for quite a while and is
now heading back to Rhode Island after visiting Cuba. He plans to leave tomorrow. He will head into Hampton Roads, travel out
into the open ocean and make a straight shot for Block Island. If I understood him correctly, it is a 30
plus hour trip, depending on the weather, and somewhere over 300 miles. People do that. We are not ready for that yet.
Bed at 9:00.
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